Archive for Science

When Daddy’s away, these girls party!

So what would be better than Pizza, homemade slime, popcorn, candy and a movie?  Oh, a sleepover in the living room of course!

Friday we headed to Walmart to get our supplies for an evening of Mother and Daughter fun!  Me and my 3 girls!  First stop was the Redbox…which at our Walmart happens to be blue now…why is that? Anyhow we decided on RIO! Even though birds scare me in real life, I can hang with some animated birds.

Our trips to Walmart are never in and out or even quick.  We have to browse everything.  There is so much to see and my girls have so much fun browsing the items and asking me questions.  Lots and lots of questions…

You can view photos from our fun shopping trip in my Google+ album!

So to start off the fun we made some pizza!  Normally we would make homemade pizza, but this time I had a coupon and we picked up a DiGiorno Pizza that came with Chocolate Chip Cookies….we were going all out!
Pizza!

After we had our Pizza and Cookies it was time for a fun project!  A project that combines science, fun and even something oooooooey goooooey for October spookiness!  We made SLIME! This is a very fun project and I encourage you to make it with your own children.  My girls are ages 5, 7 and 13 and they all loved it! Heck, I loved it!

What you need:

Homemade Slime ingredients

  • Elmer’s School Glue
  • Borax
  • Food Coloring (optional)
  • Warm Water

The first step is to empty one bottle of Elmer’s School Glue into a bowl as Emma is doing in the photo below.
The main ingredient for slime

Once you have it empty, refill the bottle with warm water.  Replace the cap and shake.  Then empty this into the bowl of glue that you already have.  Add a few drops of food coloring if you like.
making the slime base

Mix it well!
Elmer's Glue, Water and Food coloring

Set this aside and grab the Borax.
Borax for slime making!

Now you need a 1/2 cup of warm water and about a teaspoon of Borax.  Mix this up, don’t worry about the powder being dissolved.
mixing the Borax solution to use as a binder

Now for the fun part! While one person stirs the glue mixture, another person will slowly pour a little of the Borax mixture into the glue.  Just a little!  Now as the glue mixture is stirred you will see the molecules binding together and it getting stringy and slimy looking!  This is so cool!  See in the photo below how it is starting to pull with the spoon?
binding the molecules for slime!

Add a tiny bit more Borax solution and keep mixing….now let your kids dig in with their hands!
Homemade slime fun
stretchy slime

Now this was a bit too slimy for continued play, so we added some more Borax solution.  At this point you will definitely need to mix it well with your hands!  Knead it in well.  Be sure to only add a little at a time, but do not stop mixing!
Ewww slime

We got it to the perfect play consistency!
goooooey slime!
Slime
Slime
Homemade slime fun!

Store in an air tight container! We put ours in the containers you see in the photo above.  The lids screw on.  You could also use ziploc bags if you want.  We ended up making two batches and the Borax solution was enough to make both batches. We just needed another bottle of glue.  We left that one white by not adding any food coloring.

Talk about cheap fun that will last for days!

Next it was movie time! We popped the popcorn, poured our Clear American drinks ( I LOVE the Pineapple Coconut!  Emma loved the Honey Dew, Lauren loved the Raspberry and Morgan loved the Black Cherry!), grabbed our yummy chocolate candy and made pallets in the living room.
had Caramel Corn
Slept in the living room

Rio was such a cute movie! The girls were cracking up laughing and absolutely loved it.  The bird dance club was hilarious!  Definitely a great movie for family movie night!  I think if daddy had been here he would have liked it as well.  I think I’ll add it to the Christmas shopping list for sure!  A birdie love story…awwwwwwww

We had so much fun and are planning on inviting some of our friends over to make slime with us!  It would be a fun project for a kids party and they could take home the slime as party favors!

#DontBeTheDarkHouse and #ClearAmerican

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias  All opinions are my own.

Have you ever considered being a teacher? Have you ever looked into math teaching fellowships?  The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships provide recent college graduates and career changers in science, technology, engineering and math fields.  This is with a $30,000 stipend to complete the master’s degree program.

The master’s degree program can be completed at one of the participating universities.  There are seventeen located across the mid-west.  By completing just one application it allows you to apply at a variety of universities across Indiana, Ohio, or Michigan.

Fellows will receive training, professional development through the Woodrow Wilson University program.  This includes full-time Master’s coursework that is completed in a high need classroom with an experienced teacher.  At the end of the summer of 2013 you can receive the teacher certification for Indiana, Ohio or Michigan.

Also, master’s study year which is divided equally between coursework and demanding immersive “clinical” experiences.  This is in schools and you will be observing and working in urban or rural schools three to five days per week.

There is a focus on high-poverty schools.  These courses and programs are designed and geared toward the 20 Fellows on each campus.

When you start your three-year commitment as a salaried teacher you will be working for school districts.  The Fellows also get three years of mentoring from veteran teachers that have vast experience.

What is really awesome is that all Fellows get a $30,000 stipend!  This will help with the cost of the full-time pre-service Master’s year.  You could also apply for additional financial aid, tuition reductions, and scholarships to bring the cost even lower.

So what do you think? I know that I would never make it as a teacher.  I pretty much only like my own kids…oops.

0 Categories : Did You Know?

As a Homeschooling family, we are always looking for educational things that are fun! No one likes to do boring things! Make it fun and they will absorb it like a sponge! With the Robots-4-U Summer camp they will be learning engineering, math, science, technology and more!  You can sign them up through Juice in the City for a fun camp for half off of 1 week!

At Robots-4-U they will get to work hands-on with robots! Totally cool! This camp is great for kids 7 to 17! The deal covers all supply and registration fees as well. You do have to pre-register online so be sure to check availability and location.

This deal can be redeemed for one of the following Robots Summer Camps:

  • Aug 8-12 Dallas Summer Camp: Park Cities Hilton, 5954 Luther Lane, Dallas, TX 75225; (214) 368-0400; M-F from 9am to 3pm
  • Aug 8-12 Plano Summer Camp: Family Fun Center, 1100 Capital Avenue, Plano, TX 75074; (972) 633-8783; M-F from 9am to 3pm
  • Aug 15-19 Allen Summer Camp: La Quinta, 1220 North Central Expressway, Allen, TX 75013; (214) 667-6772; M-F from 9am to 3pm
  • Aug 15-19 Frisco Summer Camp: Embassy Suites, 7600 John Q Hammons Drive, Frisco, TX 75034; (972) 712-7200; M-F from 9am to 3pm

 

0 Categories : I'm So Cheap

Know Magazine is a Science Magazine for kids ages 6 to 9 years old.  I don’t know about your kids, but my kids and most kids that I know love science!  There really isn’t anything boring about science.  There is always something to learn and ohhhhh the experiments!  We love experiments!

My girls love anything that is hands on…learning from a text book is boring.  I don’t blame them for not liking text books.  Give them something interesting and the learning just happens! Read More→

0 Categories : Around Our House

This giveaway has ended! The winning comment was comment #20. The winner has been notified. Thanks!

blue print-1

The more fun you make education, the easier it is to teach.  Recently I was sent the first release in the  Human Body Detectives series to try out with the girls.  I knew right away that this would be a great addition to our health curriculum selection for this year.

The “The Lucky Escape” is about Merrin and Pearl and how they enter different systems to solve a health mystery. Through these exciting stories, kids learn about the body and how foods best fuel them. A workbook is also provided that reinforces what kids have learned. This is a perfect addition to the home education of children, or as a supplement to public education.

Lauren and Emma really liked this. Lauren said her favorite part was about the mom rubbing the baby and bubbles popping and making “fart sounds“.  She thought this was very funny.  After the girls used the Human Body Detectives we were eating lunch and they started talking about things they learned, all on their own.  I didn’t have to prod them for info, they had fun with it and wanted to tell me all about it! Since it was fun, the information has been retained!

Written by, Dr. Heather Manley. Dr. Manley is a Hawaiian Naturopathic Physician.  This is the first in the Human Body Detectives series.  Her second book in the series will be out in October, “The Battle with the Bugs”. This one is about the immune system.  Other titles to be released are: adventures through the circulatory, nervous, and muscular systems.  Dr. Heather Manley would also like you to know that she will be offering the book to be used as a school fundraiser.  You can contact her through her website for more info on this.

The website is jam packed with info, even fun recipes to try!

Would you like to win your own?

Main Entry: Follow Dr. Heather Manley on Twitter, then tweet this: ” @drheathernd Human Body Detectives Review & Giveaway http://tinyurl.com/ntddhg ” Then leave a comment here with your tweet status URL.

Bonus Entries:

  • Facebook become a fan of Human Body Detectives and leave a comment here for your entry.
  • Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the link for 5 entries (comment 5 times for your entries)
  • Tweet the tweet message above daily to earn bonus daily entries!  You can do this once per day! Leave a comment each time.
  • Subscribe to my Enews and Updates! This is good for 5 more bonus entries! Comment for each entry!

This giveaway ends September 26, 2009!

22 Categories : Contests